Joseph Gunter and Maria Martinez are hoping for a good Christmas for their kids: Juan, 12, Isaiah, 10, Caleb, 10, Miguel, 8, and Sebastian, 7.

Joseph Gunter and Maria Martinez are hoping for a good Christmas for their kids: Juan, 12, Isaiah, 10, Caleb, 10, Miguel, 8, and Sebastian, 7.

Photo: Gunter Family

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Battered by health problems, dad hopes for holiday respite for 5 boys

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In a two-week span in November, Joseph Gunter found himself in the hospital twice. First, for a stroke, and then again just a week and a half later, after a car accident on Black Friday.

Hospital stays are not new for Gunter, 33. He was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 19 and had his colon removed. He suffers from high blood pressure, and when he went in for a CT scan following the car accident, the doctors found a concerning mass in his stomach.

"I just have a whole bunch of stuff going on right now," he said. "I'm very stressed out."

Gunter's health woes run in the family. His father died in 2010 after numerous ailments, including brain cancer, and his 10-year-old son, Caleb, has already shown signs of an unhealthy colon and has to have a colonoscopy every six months.

"He has my genes," Gunter said. "It is a 99.9 percent chance that he will be going through the same thing that I am."

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Gunter said his health is too poor for him to work, and he has been staying with a friend, Maria Martinez, until he can get back on his feet. Martinez, who works part time as an insurance agent, has four sons: Juan, 12, Isaiah, 10, Miguel, 8, and Sebastian, 7. Caleb stays with them three days a week.

With Martinez's limited means and Gunter unable to work, the family has had to rely on food stamps to get by. They can't even afford beds, sleeping with blankets on the floor.

As the holidays approached, Gunter and Martinez didn't want the hardships they have dealt with this year to keep their boys from having a good Christmas, so they applied to be recipients of Goodfellows, a Houston Chronicle program that provides families in need with Christmas gifts for their children.

"(The boys) said they didn't expect to have a Christmas," Martinez said. "We try to keep it from them how hard things are, but they know."

Martinez said she's looking forward to seeing how happy the boys are when they receive the gifts.

Goodfellows, a registered nonprofit organization founded by Chronicle city editor George Kepple in 1912, distributed toys to more than 50,000 children ages 2-10 last year to brighten the holiday season for local families struggling to make ends meet.